The juvenile liaison officer: a parent's guide

The juvenile liaison officer is the person most parents deal with after a child comes to Garda attention, and often the only one. The officer is a garda, but their job under the Children Act 2001 is different from a garda's ordinary job: not to investigate or prosecute, but to run the Garda Youth Diversion Programme for the child, from the first meeting to the end of supervision. This guide explains who they are, what they do, what the assessment and the caution meeting involve, what supervision means, what is recorded and how confidential the Programme is, and what you can do as a parent.

Who they are

Juvenile liaison officers, usually called JLOs (see the glossary), are members of An Garda Síochána selected and trained for the work and attached to the Garda Youth Diversion Bureau, which runs the Programme nationally under a Director. Every Garda division has JLOs, and the officer assigned to your child is normally based locally. They are in plain clothes for most of the work, they visit homes and schools, and they know the local services.

The Act gives the Programme a single purpose: to divert a child who has committed an offence from committing further offences. The officer's whole role follows from that. They are not there to decide guilt, and they do not give evidence in court of anything the child said to them in the course of the Programme.

What they do

The officer's work falls into three parts.

Assessment. After a garda refers a child to the Bureau, the officer meets the child and the family, looks at the circumstances of the behaviour and of the child, and reports to the Director with a recommendation on admission and on whether supervision is needed.

The caution. Where the Director admits the child, the officer gives the caution, informal or formal, or arranges for a superintendent to give the formal one, with you present.

Supervision. Where the Director directs supervision after a formal caution, the officer supervises the child for the period set, keeping contact with the child, the family and the school, and connecting the child with local supports.

The decision at each stage belongs to the Director, not the officer. How the Programme fits with a prosecution is in A child charged: the Garda Youth Diversion Programme comes first.

The first meeting and the assessment

The officer contacts you within a few weeks of the referral, and either calls to the house or asks you to bring the child to the station. The meeting is informal. The officer explains the Programme, what a caution is, that it is not a conviction, and that admission depends on the child accepting responsibility for the behaviour and agreeing to the caution and to supervision if it is recommended.

The officer talks to the child about what happened and why, and to you about school attendance, home, friends, health, and anything else affecting the child. The assessment is not a test to be passed; it is the officer forming a view of what the child needs. Honesty helps, including about difficulties at home or with the child, because the officer's recommendation on supervision depends on it.

If the child does not accept responsibility, the officer cannot recommend admission. If you or the child want advice before that conversation, a solicitor can give it, and where the referral followed an arrest the Garda Station Legal Advice Revised Scheme would already have applied at the station; see A child arrested: rights at the Garda station.

The officer then sends a report to the Director. The decision takes weeks. The officer tells you the outcome: admission with an informal caution, admission with a formal caution and supervision, or a decision that the child is not suitable, in which case the Garda consider a prosecution and the case may go to the Children Court.

The caution meeting

An informal caution is given by the officer, often at home, with you present. The officer speaks to the child about the behaviour, its effect and its consequences, and records that the caution was given. There is usually no supervision.

A formal caution is given at a Garda station by a Garda superintendent, or by the officer on the Director's direction, with you present. The Act allows the victim to be invited, where the victim agrees and the officer judges it suitable, so that the child hears directly what the behaviour did. In some cases the Programme uses a restorative caution, or convenes a family conference, where the child, the family, the victim and the officer agree what the child should do to make amends: an apology, a repair, a payment, a commitment about behaviour. The child's and your agreement is required.

The caution meeting lasts a short time. The child is expected to speak for themselves. You are there as a parent, not as a representative, and the officer addresses the child directly.

Supervision

Where the Director directs supervision after a formal caution, the officer supervises the child for the period set; the Act fixes the period, it is commonly 12 months, and the officer tells you the period at the caution. The Director can shorten it where the child does well, or extend it where the child needs more support.

Supervision is not probation and not a curfew. The officer keeps in contact with the child and with you, calls to the house, checks on school attendance, and helps the child get into things that occupy time well: a sports club, a youth service, training, or a local Garda Youth Diversion Project. The Projects are community-based, run by youth organisations and funded by the Department of Justice, and are separate from the statutory Programme; referral to one is common during supervision and sometimes continues after it.

The officer can agree conditions with the child and the family, and the level of contact depends on what the officer judges the child needs. If the child is referred again for a further offence during supervision, the Director reconsiders, and a further caution, a longer supervision, or a decision that the Programme is no longer suitable are all possible.

The record and the Programme's confidentiality

A caution under the Programme is not a conviction. The Act provides that the child's acceptance of responsibility, and anything said in the course of the Programme, cannot be given in evidence against the child in any later criminal proceedings, and that the child's participation in the Programme is not to be used against them. There is no court record because there was no court.

The Garda do keep a record of the referral, the caution and the supervision on their own system. The Act restricts its use, and it does not appear on a certificate of previous convictions. In Garda vetting for work with children or vulnerable adults, a caution is not disclosed as a conviction; the National Vetting Bureau can disclose information other than convictions where it considers it relevant to a bona fide concern, but a Programme caution is not within the ordinary disclosure of convictions and the Bureau tells the person before any such disclosure issues.

The Programme is confidential. The officer does not tell the school, an employer or anyone else that the child is on it without a reason connected to the child's welfare, and the law that protects a child's identity in the Children Court applies in substance to the Programme too. The Courts Service publishes the Children Court's figures, 3,653 orders in 2025, but no figure for the Programme appears in the sources this site uses, so the number of children diverted in a year is not published here.

When the officer cannot help

The officer's role ends in two situations. If the Director decides the child is not suitable for the Programme, or the child does not accept responsibility, the Garda decide whether to prosecute, and the case is heard in The Children Court, the District Court sitting in private for under-18s. The Children Court can itself refer a child who admits the offence back to the Programme, so the door is not closed by a charge. And if the child turns 18, offences committed after that are adult matters and the Adult Caution Scheme, not the Programme, is the diversion that applies.

What a parent can do

• Return the officer's call and make the first meeting happen; delay helps nobody.
• Before the meeting, decide with the child whether they accept responsibility, and get advice from a solicitor if there is any doubt about what happened.
• Be honest with the officer about school, home and what is going on; supervision is designed around it.
• Attend the caution and let the child answer for themselves.
• During supervision, keep the officer informed and take up the referrals to clubs, projects and services; they are the substance of the Programme.
• Keep the child's identity private, online and offline; the law protects it and so should the family.
• If the child is not admitted and a summons arrives, read it for the date and the court, and prepare the statement of means for legal aid.

Where this leaves you

For most families the juvenile liaison officer is the beginning and the end of the process: a referral, an assessment, a caution with you present, and a period of contact that leaves no conviction and no court record. Where the Programme is not available, the Children Court follows, with legal aid granted by the judge on the parents' means.

The Garda's own description of the Programme and the Bureau is at the Garda Youth Diversion Bureau. If the case does go to court, /legal-aid explains how the judge decides and what the statement of means asks; if you may qualify for legal aid for your child, ask the judge for it at the first appearance.